Pretty Little San Francisco, now in the shop!

Rudyard Kipling once said, "San Francisco has only one drawback - 'tis hard to leave."

As someone who grew up in the Bay Area, I have to agree with him.  Though I love where I live now, to me San Francisco will always be "The City".  Because it has such a big place in my heart, I was a little nervous about designing one of my Pretty Little City patterns for SF, I was worried I wouldn't be able to do it justice.  But I am so happy with how it turned out, and it's in the shop now!

Coincidentally, there is an exhibit of Mary Blair's work opening in San Francisco next month at the Disney Family Museum.  I can't wait to go and see my favorite artist being honored in my favorite city!

Happy Birthday Satsuma Street! (and a free pattern!)

Well I just couldn't be prouder…my little baby is turning one year old today!  One year ago I opened my etsy shop, not knowing what the response would be.  I had two sales within a few hours of opening the shop, and I started to think I might be right… people were hungry for a new take on cross stitch!

Since that first day the response has been overwhelming and wonderful.  Every day I hear from people who haven't done cross stitch in years, or who have never tried it before but are inspired to take up the craft because they love my designs.  I've worked harder at this than at any job, and every single day has been an absolute joy.  I can't wait to see what the next year will bring!

And because Satsuma would never have been a success without all the amazing customers who have supported me, I'm celebrating my birthday by giving YOU a present!  Please enjoy this new free pattern, Sunshine!

You can right-click on the chart above to download it as a jpeg, or click here to download the PDF.

Enjoy, share with friends, and send me photos of your happy suns on instagram!

hugs & stitches, Jody

the joy of stitch

One of my favorite things about this time of year is that everything slows down a little and we take the time to make things...meals, gatherings, and especially gifts.  And my favorite word of the holiday season is definitely... JOY.  It just sums up what the season is about, and without any specific ideas about what should bring you joy.

For me, joy is spending hours and hours making beautiful things by hand.  To give to others, to decorate my home, and just to give myself the present of sitting quietly and peacefully, enjoying the Joy of Stitch.

In that spirit, I present Satsuma Street's first holiday pattern, Joy.

just in time for fall...

I love Fall, even though I live in Los Angeles where the trees don't really change and it doesn't drop below 70 degrees.  It's more the idea of Fall that I love... it just feels cozier, doesn't it?  Like it's totally ok now to wear your pajamas all weekend and curl up under a blanket and add a little schnapps to your coffee even if it's only 4pm.  So in that spirit I designed one of my latest patterns, Forest:

Wouldn't you love to spend this fall stitching these vibrant autumn trees?  (while wearing pajamas and sipping schnapps, or not)  I stitched the sample for this pattern on natural colored linen evenweave, which is my new favorite material for cross-stitching.  I was originally planning on framing it, but the long horizontal design just called out to be made into a pillow instead.

Here's a close up of these vibrant colors on the natural linen:

Now that I think about it, the only thing that would make Fall even better was if trees really did turn magenta and teal and coral and purple.  But on Satsuma Street they do!

Happy Halloween and a cross stitch pumpkin!

Gosh I'm terrible at keeping up with this blog... lots of new patterns in the shop!  But as it's almost Halloween I thought I'd post a little project I did that isn't in the etsy shop... my cross stitch pumpkin!

That's right, I'm crazy and I embroidered a pumpkin.  It was easy, and there was wine and power tools involved.  So, not a project for kiddos, unless you leave out the wine.  But who would leave out the wine?!?

Anyway here's what I did:  first I scooped out my pumpkin as you usually do, except I did it from a hole in the back of the pumpkin instead of cutting out the top.  Then I drew a simple heart template on paper, taped that to the pumpkin and then marked where my holes would go with a push-pin.  I drilled the holes with a power drill with a 1/8" bit, but I wish I'd drilled bigger holes...they got really tight as I started stitching.

Then it was just a matter of cross-stitching my heart with that big bulky weight yarn you see in the photo and a very large tapestry needle.  I found it was also helpful to have a toothpick to shove in the holes from the front of the pumpkin when I was searching around for the right spot on the slimy dark inside.  Your hands, the needle, and the yarn will all get really slimy and it gets harder and harder to pull the needle through the holes, the more yarn that is passing through them, so I found I also needed a pair of pliers to help pull the needle through sometimes.

And voila!  Now I can say I have embroidered fruit.  That's right, pumpkins are a fruit!  Look how much you've learned today!

Now that's amore! Pretty Little Italy has arrived!

Here's the latest in my series of modern cross-stitch travel patterns!  For this design I combined Rome, Venice, Pisa, and Tuscany to incorporate all the best spots in Italy.  It's a perfect companion piece to my other European patterns, Pretty Little London and Pretty Little Paris!  And I'm offering a deal in my etsy shop for all three patterns for $15!

    

Pretty Little London!

Still working on the elephant pincushion, but I thought I'd mention one of my favorite Satsuma Street patterns, Pretty Little London!

This modern cross stitch design of the London skyline features some of the city's most iconic landmarks, done in my colorful graphic way.  You have Tower Bridge, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace and St. Paul's cathedral, as well as more modern structures like the London Eye, the Shard, and the Gherkin building.  And of course because it's London, there's a happy little raincloud!

Like my other city patterns, this London design is inspired by Mary Blair and her designs for It's a Small World.  I love taking the features of a city and trying to make them graphic and stylish while still evoking the place.

This pattern is available in my etsy shop, and makes a great companion piece to my other city designs!